Identifying and Securing Sensitive Data at its Source

Abstract

A data management service identifies sensitive data stored on enterprise databases according to record classification rules that classify a data record as having a sensitive data type if the data record includes fields matching at least one of the record classification rules. The data management service determines assessment scores for enterprise databases according to sensitive data records and protection policies on the enterprise databases. The data management service provides an interface that groups enterprise databases having common attributes or common sensitive data types and indicates aggregated assessment scores for the groups of enterprise databases. Through the interface with the grouped enterprise databases, an administrator apply protection policies to enterprise databases. To apply the protection policy, the data management service applies the protection policy to a source database from which dependent enterprise databases access the sensitive database.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 991,477, filed May 10, 2014, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 144,327, filed Apr. 7, 2015, both of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The subject matter described herein relates to visualizing data to facilitate identification and protection of sensitive data.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]Modern day computer networks store numerous types of data, including sensitive data. Sensitive data contains information that could cause harm to individuals and businesses if compromised. Example types of sensitive data include health care records, financial data, and personal identification information. Because the consequences of exposing sensitive data are severe, network administrators apply one or more protection policies to the sensitive data as an additional layer of security beyond a database's s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The data management service provides a way to protect enterprise databases from unauthorized access. By grouping together databases that have common traits and assessing their vulnerability, administrators can identify trends and create targeted protection policies. The service then applies these policies to the source database, which helps to secure the data and prevent it from being copied to other databases. This reduces the processing needed compared to simply protecting each database individually.

Problems solved by technology

Identifying sensitive data may be a challenge for a number of reasons.

However, frequent scans are not practical if the scans are computationally intensive, as a scan of each individual database record would be.

Accordingly, computationally intensive scans the frequency of scans and the accuracy of the network administrator's sensitive data knowledge.

When examining databases without prioritization, a network administrator may miss critical databases that present a high overall level of risk.

Furthermore, multiple databases may access sensitive data records.

Protecting all copies of a data record may not be practical if the network administrator cannot directly apply protection policies to a database.

Images